Membership is open to anyone willing to fill out a brief form and provide an email address. Tom's boasts millions of users and members and indeed the strength of the site and the community is the input of so many. Just like in class, the community of users has the expertise. While the writers and moderators may have a lot of knowledge to share, it is only through the millions of users, all trying out various gear in various combinations and reporting on that use that the true power of the site is revealed. The combined intelligence of the many means that anyone with a question about virtually anything can find an answer at just about anytime. It is really is exciting to be a part of.
It is hard to get a sense of the diversity on Tom's site since most everyone uses a pseudonym like razzer75 and OClockDog and so forth. Since the posts have little to do with personal lives we can learn very little about the posters themselves. If I were to guess, I would say the vast majority are male and a good percentage are in that 20-40 some range. While anyone is welcome (a love of gear and computing is all that is required), I would guess that there is less diversity than on some other sites.
It is hard to get a sense of the diversity on Tom's site since most everyone uses a pseudonym like razzer75 and OClockDog and so forth. Since the posts have little to do with personal lives we can learn very little about the posters themselves. If I were to guess, I would say the vast majority are male and a good percentage are in that 20-40 some range. While anyone is welcome (a love of gear and computing is all that is required), I would guess that there is less diversity than on some other sites.